How to get to the top and stay there

So I've been on a YouTube/BlogTV marathon for the past week. It's probably because it's summer, which means that in central Maryland, there's a wall of humidity that knocks you on your ass whenever you leave your air-conditioned house or job.

I'm relatively new to BlogTV, but I've been here long enough to notice a lot of similarities between the top YouTube stars and the top BlogTV stars. Some of these similarities may seem unfair, but who said that life is fair?

So here's my list of what yo need going on in order to leap to the top, and stay there.

The first four qualities are must-haves. Yes, a person comes along to break the combo, but it doesn't happen often.

• Be white or Asian.
• Be thin, which means not fat, flabby or big-boned.
• Be under 25 years old.
• Be good-looking.
  

Once again, the above combo may not be fair, but that's just how it is. I can do 20 more psychology-related blogs explaining this, but seeing how I'm not a licensed psychologist, I'll have to pass on that task to someone a lot more qualified. Just take my word and realize that we humans are incredibly biased people, and there's proof of this fact when you take a look at the movies and TV shows that we love to watch.

Now to continue the part of the list which anyone can meet the qualifications.

• Focus. Focus, focus, focus. I can't stress that enough. It's not difficult to find someone who is spreading themselves way too thin. They have accounts on YouTube, BlogTV, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, and countless other sites on the net, and they try to keep all of those accounts updated. It won't work. You may be one of the few people that can actually keep those different sites updated, but your audience is going to be splintered and confused. Only the most-dedicated stalker or fangirl is going to invest the time to follow you cross the internet; the rest of us are going to simply find someone who has chosen a singe place to focus on.
• Promote yourself. You can use the other sites, but use them only to draw attention to your main YouTube channel or BlogTV show. Twitter is amazing at that. Every time that you appear on video or a collab video, promote your own channel. If the other person isn't willing to go to at least a minimum effort to promote you, then you need to go to the other million peope out there making videos.
• Don't over-promote yourself. The fastest way to turn someone off of you is to appear arrogant. If they perceive you as a hustler that's trying to consistently make a buck on their time, then you will lost that member of your audience. People want you to entertain them, not advertise at them.
  
• Don't insult your audience. This means don't tell jokes about gays, blacks, Jews, Christians and whatever immaterial reason we find to hate other people. You may not think you have a lot of 60 year old viewing your shows, but you'd be surprised at how many people have the extra time to just sit at the computer and be entertained. All types of people are replacing their teles with net-connected devices, so you have way more of a diverse audience than you think.

There are other things that belong in that list, but those are the most important above, I could have included "be talented or skillful," but that's a pretty subjective talent left for a post of its own.

Is the Youtube Partner Program a scam?

Becoming a partner can be a great thing -- you get banners, unlimited run times on your videos, channel enhancements including a branding box, and you have the potential to passively make money of of your videos. All of this sounds brilliant, but at what cost?

For the person watching your videos, they have to now tolerate ads that are placed to the right of your video and inside the bottom margin of the video player. The advert to the right is harmless, but the other advert that is inside of your video is the problem.

You see, most people don't like the popup, or should I call it the "popin," advert.
And this is where the scam starts.

Before I go on, I should explain how a partner makes money on these ads. It's pretty simple really; they get a small amount of money, usually 1-5 cents per click. Per CLICK, not view, but click.

Now back to the part that I look at as a scam. When a viewer is watching your videos and the popin comes up, the viewer is going to naturally try to click the little X in the upper right corner of the advert. Usually, they hit the X, and the ad minimizes. But sometimes, they miss the X by a few millimeters, and that miss -- that mistake of hand-eye coordination -- becomes a click through. And that's how most ad content on YouTube generates money, by taking advantage of the fact that the average user will miss that X between 1-2% of the time.

This reminds me of, how a few years ago, if you clicked or opened the wrong web page, you'd be bombarded by 20 new windows full of boobs, penises and weight-loss pills. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against boobs or penises, but I really don't need to see them unless I go looking for them.

Google AdSense isn't nearly as annoying as those sex ads were, but they operate on the same basis, which is opening a new window/tab based on a user's mistake.

The good side of the popins is that they can sometimes be hilarious. I can't tell you how many videos I've watched of someone being serious, maybe they just broke up with a gf or bf, or they're going through some other drama in life, and an ad for a hoagie pops up. Or someone making a video about coming out of the closet (in the gay sense), and then seeing an ad for ADD/ADHD.

If I were to be a YouTube partner, I'd probably enable ads, because hell, I don't mind free money, so I can't fault any partner that does the same. But until then, I just have to learn how to be a more precise clicker.